It’s easy to forget about coins in your pocket or lying around in your house but they might be worth more than you think.

With coins such as Olympic 50p pieces, ‘New Pence’ coins from the 1980s and commemorative Guy Fawkes coins selling for far more than their face value, it’s worth taking a closer look at the loose change down the back of the sofa.

A Kew Gardens 50p piece, for example, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens in 2009, could bring in as much as £50 - a hundred times its value if you spend it at a supermarket.

The Chronicle reported last year that one in 300 people may currently have a Kew Gardens 50p piece, according to experts, which means thousands of people in the Tyne and Wear area might have some hidden wealth in their house.

The Kew Gardens 50p which was released in 2009 to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Image: Royal Mint/PA Wire)

You could also make a quick £100 if you’ve got a dateless 20p piece in your collection.

According to the Royal Mint, around a quarter of a million 20p coins were minted incorrectly in November 2008, with no date next to the Queen’s portrait on the heads side of the coin.

While these coins remain legal tender, they would be worth a lot more if you could find one in mint condition and sell it online.

That was not the only minting mishap to create a set of rare coins. The Royal Mint stopped labelling 2p coins with ‘New Pence’ in 1981, some ten years after the old system of pounds, shillings and pence, was abolished, but in 1983 accidentally struck another set of ‘New Pence’ 2p pieces.

And when a set of £2 coins with a firework image were struck in 2005, marking four centuries since the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, some of them misspelled the famous rhyme in an inscription on the side of the coin, writing ‘Pemember, Pemember the Fifth of November’.

A 2p coin from 1981 (Image: Free editorial use)

Online sales suggest the Guy Fawkes typo could be worth more than £10, while a 1983 ‘New Pence’ coin could sell for hundreds of pounds.

The £2 coins commemorating the launching of the Mary Rose and the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, both struck in 2011, may also be worth triple their face value because of their rarity.

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Coins produced to mark the 2012 Olympic Games in London can also be worth more than they seem. The Royal Mint produced a collection of 29 coins, one for each of the Olympic or Paralympic sports which were contested that year, worth 50p in a shop but more in good condition.

Perhaps the most memorable coin was a diagram explaining the offside rule in football, but rare designs can be worth several pounds and a full set could sell for £30 or more.